Shaun Marsh shines ahead of first Test against India

The Marsh brothers are warming up their game in Australia's domestic tournament, the Sheffield Shield, for Western Australia ahead of the first Test against India. Mitchell Marsh is the captain of the Western Australia team, and Shaun Marsh plays at number three position.

Both of them struggled in the two-match series against Pakistan and couldn't score runs in the middle order as the Aussies batting collapsed in three out of four innings. The brothers drew stern criticism from former players and the public for their poor outing with the bat. Mitchell Marsh failed with the ball as well in UAE. However, they had good backing from the coach to come up good in the series against India.

In the last round of Shield game ahead of the Test series, Shaun Marsh came up with excellent innings of 81 against New South Wales in Perth Stadium helping his team post 198 on board. Mitchell Marsh failed with the bat scoring only six runs before Copeland dismissed him. He also bowled 15 overs in NSW's first innings and went wicketless giving away 58 runs.

Mitchell Marsh is yet to bowl in the second innings of New South Wales. He has another opportunity in the match to put up a better show with some wickets and runs against his name and claim his spot in the test side. Shaun Marsh also has another innings to score more runs and continue the momentum he had in the first innings.

The Marsh brothers' form and rhythm will become a significant factor in the Australian batting unit who had struggled in the past few months. Australia is trying to bring in more stability in the middle order.

Marcus Harris will open the innings with Aaron Finch, and the change means Usman Khawaja, who opened the innings against Pakistan, will move his position one down. The strategy may allow Shaun Marsh also to move to middle order where the management will expect him to play an anchor role and avoid further batting collapse so that the batsmen can play around him.